Computational Forensics- a Vision of 21st Century

Abstract

In recent years, computational methods have been utilized in various disciplines as diverse as linguistics, chemistry, advertising, vision and many more. Forensic science is also one of the parts of this diverse family which is utilizing computational methods. Although computational forensics as a discipline is at a premature stage, there are lots of possibilities in forensics where this particular discipline can help to cope with new challenges which have arises in the last 2-3 decades. These challenges may be in terms of forged biometric data, incapability of conventional methods, scientific validation of various forensic disciplines after Dauberts hearing or a huge data which is difficult to process by human experts. The list of challenges continues. Fortunately, computational forensics which in nutshell concerns the investigation of forensic problems employing computational methods has potential to address all these challenges. This paper addresses the emerging field of computational forensics, its scope and the various challenging problems of forensics that we have attempted using computational methods.